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Migrant shelters overflowing as Tijuana braces for returnees

Trump administration will return asylum seekers to Mexico for the duration of their application process.
Migrant shelters in a northern Mexican border city are overflowing with
people as they cope for the influx of US asylum seekers set to be
returned to the city from the United States, say activists and local
shelter officials.

Officials at shelters located in Tijuana, currently filled to the brim
with Central Americans fleeing poverty and violence, say they are unable
to cope with the asylum seekers expected to be returned starting on
Friday.

Dubbed the "Migrant Protection Protocols", the policy was first
announced by US President Donald Trump's administration on December 20.

The policy will return non-Mexican migrants who cross the US southern
border back to wait in Mexico indefinitely while their asylum requests
are processed in US immigration courts.

Mexican Foreign Ministry spokesman Roberto Velasco said the US was
expected to send the first group of 20 asylum seekers back to its
territory later on Friday through Tijuana.

Asylum seekers have traditionally been granted the right to stay in the
United States while their cases were decided by a US immigration judge,
but a backlog of more than 800,000 cases means the process can now take
years.

Now, the US government says migrants will be turned away with a "notice
to appear" in immigration court. They will be able to enter the United
States for their hearings but will have to live in Mexico in the
interim.

If they lose their cases, they will be deported to their home countries.
Fleeing violence

"Shelters are at capacity and we can't receive migrants that are being
deported or (Mexican) nationals that are passing through the city. Let's
hope this doesn't happen," said Jose Maria Garcia, who runs the
Juventud 2000 shelter in Tijuana.

The US policy shift is aimed at curbing the increasing number of
families arriving mostly from Central America who say they fear
returning to their home countries due to threats of violence.

The Trump administration says many of the claims are not valid.

The programme will apply to arriving migrants who ask for asylum at
ports of entry or who are caught crossing irregularly and say they are
afraid to return home.

Immigration advocates fear Mexico is not safe for asylum seekers and
migrants who are regularly kidnapped by criminal gangs and smugglers,
and have raised concerns that applicants will not be able to access
proper legal counsel to represent them in US courts.

Twenty-four year-old Danis Lazaro, who left his native Guatemala five
months ago with his two daughters, aged six and seven, said he was
concerned about the new US policy.

"It doesn't seem fair to me. It's safer for us on the other side [of the border]," he said.

It is unclear how Mexico plans to house what could be thousands of
asylum seekers for the lengthy duration of their immigration
proceedings.

Some Mexican border towns are more violent than the cities the Central Americans left behind.
'War on asylum seekers'

"Asylum seekers from Central America are fleeing unspeakable violence
and their journeys to the United States are dangerous and harrowing,"
said Betsy Fisher, policy director for the International Refugee
Assistance Project.

"For many of them, Mexico is not a safe place to stay."

The administration of President Donald Trump, who has falsely described
Central American migrants as a danger, says it is relying on a US law
that allows migrants attempting to enter the United States from a
contiguous country to be removed to that country.

But the policy will likely be challenged in court since claiming asylum is protected under both international and US law.

"The Trump administration's war on asylum seekers continues. There is no
doubt that, unless blocked, this policy will lead to even more chaos
and further erode our nation's core values," the Southern Poverty Law
Center said in a statement.

Several of Trump's signature immigration policies, including some
attempting to reduce asylum applications, have been halted by US federal
courts.

On Friday, Trump announced an agreement with Democrats that will
temporarily reopen the government after a 35-day partial shutdown.

The president had allowed the shutdown to take effect in December after
Democrats refused to approve $5.7bn in funding for a wall along the
US-Mexico border.